Fighting Nuclear Energy, Fighting for India's Democracy

• Published in: Science as culture Vol. 22; no. 2; pp. 238 - 246
• Main Author: Bhadra, Monamie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 01.06.2013
• Subjects: Citizen participation; Democracy; India; Nuclear Energy; Nuclear power plants; participation; Public opinion; Social movements
• ISSN: 0950-5431; 1470-1189
• DOI: 10.1080/09505431.2013.786986

For the first time since the inception of its nuclear power program in 1948, India is reverberating from a groundswell of unprecedented public opposition to the Government of India's (GoI) decision to accelerate building its nuclear energy infrastructure (Visvanathan, 2011). Debates about nuclear energy normally confined to the highest echelons of power have spilled into mainstream, national media outlets. Opening Indian markets to investment from foreign nuclear energy corporations, beginning with the USIndia nuclear deal of 2008, followed by the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, had the side effect of opening nuclear activities and expertise to public criticism. Citizens are voicing concerns about livelihood and cultural losses related to land acquisition for nuclear power plants, and have begun to submit public interest litigations and prepare scientific reports with their own experts. Transnational human rights and anti-nuclear groups have expressed solidarity with Indian anti-nuclear activists. Prominent Indian scientists, judges, and high-ranking government officials are defecting from the nuclear establishment and speaking out against nuclear energy. Taking a page from the Arab Spring, Indian anti-nuclear groups are using Facebook to bruit images, news, policy statements and live coverage of protests. Reprinted by permission of Carfax Publishing, Taylor & Francis Ltd.